Twitches are devices that are utilized to control the movement of horses. They are used with horses during a number of different procedures, such as shoeing, veterinary procedures or the like.
Twitches are well known and generally include a flexible looped cord secured to a handle. Conventionally, the loop is twisted tightly about a portion of the animal's lip for restraint. One difficulty with conventional twitches is that they often require both hands of one individual to utilize them effectively.
Conventional equine twitches, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,201,560, include a slidable rod (10) which is pulled to tighten the loop.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,096,420 also discloses an equine twitch, wherein the loop is rotated by a crank (14). Another type of rotatable equine twitch, which utilizes a threaded screw (15), is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,257,899. Other equine twitches are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,170,442, 1,243,118, 3,747,569 and 4,252,085.
While all of these equine twitches can be useful in controlling the movement of a horse, they generally require the use of both hands of the individual utilizing them because the loop must be twisted to tighten it around the horse's lip.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to disclose an improved equine twitch.
It is a further object of the invention to disclose an equine twitch which can be utilized with a single hand.
It is a still further object of the invention to disclose an equine twitch which can be tightened mechanically, without rotating the twitch mechanism.
It is a still further object of the invention to disclose an incrementally adjustable equine twitch.
It is a further object of the invention to disclose an equine twitch whose loop can be tightened securely about a portion of the horse's lip and maintained in that position until released.
These and other aspects of the invention can be provided by the equine twitch which is disclosed by the present invention.